Xiamen King Long’s Road to Overseas Expansion
10 June 2009
---An Interview with ZHU Guoqiang, Vice President of Xiamen Kinglong
Despite of the adverse effect of the global financial crisis in later half of 2008, Xiamen Kinglong still registered an astounding overseas sales revenue of RMB 1.4 billion (about USD 204,880 million), up by over 85% y/y. In 2009, how has the bus giant in China been doing to tide over the current difficulties? How will it manage to retain its overseas customers and win even more? With theses questions in mind, our reporter recently interviewed ZHU Guoqiang, Vice President of Xiamen Kinglong.
ZHU Guoqiang, Vice President of Xiamen Kinglong
According to ZHU, China’s bus & coach market is now positioned at an advantageous point given the fact that the production volume of the country’s buses & coaches accounted for 52% of the world’s total in 2008. Apart from the huge production capacity, China’s buses are quite competitive among the increasingly cost-conscious customers in the international market
ZHU further pointed out that the cutthroat market competition in the domestic market last year has already squeezed those second- or third-layer players out of the field, such as Midea, Sany and Mudan, etc. Given the handsome profit margin in the overseas market, the well established bus builders in China has been relentlessly making efforts to set up their presence in the overseas market. Spurred by the government policy, China’s bus industry has constantly upgraded its technological level, such as replacing Euro Ⅱ Emission Standard with Euro Ⅲ.
Solely depending on the domestic market, in ZHU’s view, cannot sustain a sound development for the still fledgling industry in China. To sharpen the competitiveness of China’s bus & coach industry, enterprises involved in this sector must take the initiative to directly compete with the globally recognized giants.
From 2007 to 2008, a host of China’s bus builders, led by Xiamen Kinglong hit a number of developed countries, including Germany, Italy, France, Britain, Australia, etc. Through the constant technological upgrading, Xiamen Kinglong can meet the high standards set up by the western countries. In 2008, 60% of its sales revenue came from the overseas market, indicating that the company is gradually shifting its play ground to the international market.
As to how to build its overseas market, ZHU admits there are many ways to go abroad, but Xiamen Kinglong has always stick to its own brand on the back of self innovation. In terms of marketing, the vice president stressed that it is of paramount importance to cultivate its own sales channels and overseas customers. Meanwhile, he revealed that the company is now also considering the sales via dealership.
How to provide satisfactory post-sales services to its overseas customers is key to a successful overseas expansion, according to ZHU. Buses, as commercial vehicles, are usually operated by businesses. To ensure the profitability for bus operators, Xiamen Kinglong has been constantly improving its overseas post-market service network so as to help its customers cut operational costs and strengthen their profit margin.
In 2009, Xiamen Kinglong is optimizing its supplying chain so as to take a better control over its production costs. Meanwhile, it is strengthening its corporate management and improving its product quality in order to narrow the gap between itself and those internationally famed bus builders.
Source : english.chinabuses.com
Editor : Mark
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